


A Light in a Dark Place

by Sarah_P42



Category: Throne of Glass Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Gen, Inspiration, Slavery, Suffering, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2019-02-07 05:12:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12834039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarah_P42/pseuds/Sarah_P42
Summary: Celaena has been a slave for almost a year now, and she's still alive. But her hope is being replaced by realism, and she's not sure how much longer she'll survive.





	A Light in a Dark Place

She hadn’t seen the sun in days. It was almost as if Endovier itself was so evil and ruthless that the sunlight was too scared to enter. Darkness had become a familiar friend, whispering unsettling words in her ear and surrounding her like a blanket. Celaena Sardothien was used to the shadows, and sunlight was a long forgotten fairytale.

The shakles around her wrists and ankles were a cold reminder of where she was. What she wanted. What she couldn’t have. Her hope was dying everyday like a flower kept away from the sunlight. Those words that had been so strong to her were slowly losing its power.

_My name is Celaena Sardothien, and I will not be afraid._

It wasn’t that Celaena was afraid. She was, but it was overshadowed by the other dark emotion festering inside her.

Celaena was giving up.

She had been a slave in Endovier for almost a year now, and surprisingly, she wasn’t dead. Yet. But she knew that the luck keeping her alive would wear out soon, and despite being Adarlan’s best assassin, she wouldn’t have much to defend herself from her inevitable fate after her luck left. She was desperate, but she wasn’t stupid. She knew it would happen sometime soon.

Celaena walked down the black tunnels of the mine with a dying pickaxe in her chained hands. The stones poked at the soles of her feet and the cold air was sorrowful and hollow. They weren’t provided lanterns down here, so they had to let their eyes adjust to the darkness in order to see. Her eyes were now well adpated to the lack of light, so she could see everything around her.

Footsteps echoed on the stone walls, encircling her in sound. More and more everyday. She thought about her death, how maybe… it would be best if she took it herself.

She wanted to live, more than anything, but hope was becoming rare, and no one else had a supply. Celaena could feel the will to live slowly die away, and she couldn’t revive it, no matter how hard she tried. Sam’s words were losing their power, and Celaena had nothing else to go off of.

Her footsteps became as hollow as her heart, and Celaena weighed the pickaxe in her hand. She could easily drive it through her head… It would certainly be better than the suffering she would be facing if she let the horrors of Endovier do the job.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a gentle whisper in the dark. Unlike the usual ones she heard, which were vile, nasty terrors, this whisper was inspiring and enlivening.

Celaena stopped mid stride, and tunred her head to the whisper. It was a young woman, about her age, with short, black hair and bruises dressing her eyes like cosmetics. Her eyes were closed, and her lips were moving rapidly. Tears ran down her cheeks, and hey shone in the dark like the sun. She kept on repeated the same words over and over again:

“I will be strong. I won’t lose.”

Celaena stared at the woman, her grip on the pickaxe loosening. The woman was so brave, and the resolve in her voice was remarkable. She had strength.

She had hope.

All of a sudden, Celaena felt something snap into place. Like a missing puzzle piece, it found its hole in her broken heart, sealing up the cracks and putting it back together. She felt a small fire ignite inside her, and she got to walking again, this time with purpose and power.

The words the young woman whsipered still rang in her ears, along with the ones Sam had told her long ago. Her footsteps now rang with an overwhelming vitality and her face was set with stone and tenacity. Her soul was burning like a wildfire, out of control and fierce.

As she stormed furthur down the passage, the darkness began to retreat, cowering away from what lay ahead.

The sun.

Celaena could see the sunlight at the end of the tunnel, golden and heavenly. It called out to her, like a lover, like a friend. And Celaena answered in the dark, screaming in her mind as loudly as she could.

“I will be strong. I won’t lose. My name is Celaena Sardothien. And I will not be afraid.”


End file.
